


a pocket of pocketknives

by kimaracretak



Category: Jiàn Yǔ | Reign of Assassins (2010)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Missing Scene, Uneasy Allies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:54:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22752091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimaracretak/pseuds/kimaracretak
Summary: He has seen young girls in love, and he has seen new recruits too eager to draw blood, regardless of the elements' alignments or their swords' desires. He does not yet know which one Ye Zhanqing is.
Relationships: Lei Bin & Lian Sheng & Ye Zhanqing, Ye Zhanqing/Zeng Jing
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	a pocket of pocketknives

**Author's Note:**

  * For [echoslam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/echoslam/gifts).



"Were you her favourite?"

Ye Zhanqing is draped over the rough pile of logs that serves as furniture around their small fire, eyes fixed on the sky. Her sword is loose in her hand, the tip barely brushing against the grass, and Lei Bin is sure she is imagining driving it into his heart.

She's unsettling, like that - like always. "She didn't have favourites," he says, and wonders if he's lying. "You shouldn't, either, if you want to last long here."

"I like favourites," Zhanqing says thoughtfully. "They keep secrets. They stay alive, if you pick them well, and even if you don't they take your secrets with you, so you don't have to be as sad."

Ah, so that was her mood tonight. Lei Bin picks up his cup, squints down as if the tea leaves collecting at the bottom will give him some sort of sign, the words that will keep the three of them alive together for longer.

"If anyone's dying, it's probably her," Lian Sheng says with a humourless laugh. "Was her. She's out, gone."

Zhanqing is standing again in the space of time it takes Lei Bin to blink, and he grips his cup harder, willing the heat to grant him some measure of security. "Xi Yu does not _die_ ," Zhanqing says, and if Lei Bin did not know better he might think she sounds scared. "She is still here. We will _find her_."

Lei Bin closes his eyes. He has seen young girls in love, and he has seen new recruits too eager to draw blood, regardless of the elements' alignments or their swords' desires. He does not yet know which one Ye Zhanqing is, but, he thinks, it will probably not matter in the end.

Sheng has more patience, or, perhaps, does not realise. He deals his cards out, and Lei Bin feels the shift of the dirt as they land in shape. A triangle and two horizontal lines underneath, the same pattern he draws every night. "Come here," he says. "Look, this is her. The light. Where is she?"

Lei Bin hears the rustle of cloth as she steps forward, can imagine her squinting in the firelight. "Why does it matter? The cards are all the same." Her voice is cold now, the hint of the thing that could not have been fear gone, and he opens his eyes in time to see her flip the middle card of the first line over with the tip of her sword. It skitters across the ashy ground, coming to rest at the edge of the fire. "Parlour games," she says contemptuously. "It'll burn."

Sheng looks up at her, something like pity in his eyes. "Are they? Why that card?"

"Why does it matter?" Zhanqing repeats. She turns her back on him, returns to the log pile and settles again. Sitting, this time, and she pulls a whetstone from her pocket and attends to the edge of her blade. "The way you talk about her. Both of you. Sometimes I don't think you want to save her."

Lei Bin nearly drops his cup. Even the fire seems to quiet. "To find her," Zhanqing says, as if she has not noticed the change in the night. As if she has not noticed what she said. "The truth is in her, not in - this."

They are all past saving, Lei Bin thinks, whatever Zhanqing thinks she wants for Xi Yu, all that could possibly be ahead for them is more death - whose, though, he is not sure.

But he is beginning to think he knows more about Ye Zhanqing now than he had ever hoped to know - more than he could ever need simply for a mission.

And he wishes only that he could forget it all.


End file.
